This invention relates to a data processing system for improving the management of work performed by a large number of workers carrying out related interdependent tasks and, more particularly, to a system for automating office procedure to coordinate the flow of work on documents and the transmittal of documents between office personnel.
One source of inefficiency in office work of the type involving preparation, editing documents, filling in forms, etc. arises when a large number of documents relating to a given project have to be worked on by a large number of different people with different people being required to work on common documents and some of the tasks to be performed by some of the personnel having to await the completion of tasks performed by other personnel. When one person does not perform a task on a given document within a reasonable time, this can cause a bottleneck holding up the entire project. In addition, delays in the project tend to occur as a result of misrouting of documents and failure to promptly notify persons who have a given task to perform that the task is ready to be performed, particularly when such task has to await completion of other previous tasks. These problems are exacerbated because information as to the existence of a delay or bottleneck or its cause is not readily available to the project manager and further delays occur before he is informed of a problem and can take corrective action.